Sunday, November 16, 2008

Random bullets of gray November

Update on the rude people thing: kill them with kindness and professionalism. They will go away and stop bothering you. Excellent!

Apparently the "kill them with kindness" school also works with campus-wide committees. I expressed my willingness to meet on days when I'm not usually on campus and have never heard from the scheduler again, not even after I sent a follow-up email.

We need a name for a new kind of competition: the ecovirtue-fest. Haven't you heard people doing this lately? Example:

"I don't use harsh dishwasher detergent with phosphates.

"I don't even use the dishwasher."

"I scrub all my dishes by hand with organic plant matter and water I've dragged from the creek, and then I put it on the garden."

Apply to all other controversies (CF lightbulbs, disposable diapers, television watching and having cable), and you've got yourself a deathmatch.

If I wrote everything at the snail's pace at which I'm writing during this month of InDaWriMoInaDWriMo, my next book manuscript would be ready in about 2023. It's about as fast as etching the words on glass with a diamond.

When you get a journal acceptance and the readers' reports are complimentary, do you read the reports over three or four times just to savor them? I do the same thing when I get criticism, just to be sure that I understand what's being asked, so why not do so when the report is good?

If a friend or someone from the media contacts you with a question that might require a little research, why does that question become immediately and completely more fascinating than anything you're currently writing?

I like seeing the full moon, but I would like it not to be the major light in the sky when I leave in the morning and the major light in the sky when I drive home at night. Wasn't there a day in there, somewhere?